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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28132881">meet me halfway</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/xinteng/pseuds/xinteng'>xinteng</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Kidnapping, M/M, MAMA!AU, Missing in Action, Obsession!AU, pathcode inspired</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:40:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,174</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28132881</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/xinteng/pseuds/xinteng</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He has to find his Parallel.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Byun Baekhyun/Zhang Yi Xing | Lay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>meet me halfway</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>based on the pathcode teasers: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-h0kAl1cbc">bbh</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkw2OSqbKDI">zyx</a></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They send him home.</p><p><em>Take some rest</em>, they had said, Jongdae’s soft words and Minseok’s even softer hands pushing him towards the entrance of the airport, grabbing his luggage for him and double checking he has the plane ticket. Jongin had stood a few steps away, a tight smile on his face before he had leaned in close and whispered in his ear so that no one else could hear, “Are you sure you don’t want me to just take you there?”</p><p>Yixing had shaken his head and given him a smile of his own. He hoped it looked genuine enough. “No, Jongin,” he puts a firm hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be okay.” Jongin nods and steps back.</p><p>Yixing glances at the others, who all give him smiles that don’t reach up to the tightness in their eyes. Baekhyun sends him reassurance through their bond. <em>We’ll be fine. Take care of yourself.</em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>They send him home.</p><p><em>Where is home</em>, he thinks, as he steps off the plane and reads the signs in characters that he’s grown up with, hears the people around him speaking in snippets of <em>putonghua</em>. Yunnan is separated by a province from Hunan, and yet it does feel like home regardless, to smell the crisp air he’s missed all these years on the run, to hear the earth singing under his feet like it is whispering <em>welcome</em> in his ear. Warmth trickles down his spine, the familiar warning he gets before Baekhyun pushes into his mind gently, Yixing carefully lowering the mental walls they all have erected to keep themselves—and the others—safe. <em>Hyung</em>, he hears, soft. <em>Are you home?</em></p><p><em>Yes,</em> he thinks, as he steps out into the sun, feeling its warmth soak into his brittle, cold bones. <em>Yes, I’m home.</em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He rents a room at a small hotel—one of those designed to imitate older Chinese architecture, wooden floors and columns, slanted roofs. It sits oddly in the middle of a busy street—from his window he can see the neon signs that decorate every store outside—an ancient relic in the midst of modernity. People pass by, brushing shoulders with one another, bikes crowd the sides, pushed by harried women and young boys. Steam rises up from the food carts that dot the street like little glowing embers, backlit by the stores.</p><p>Unthinkingly, he reaches out through his link to prod at Baekhyun’s consciousness. He’s lonely. <em>You awake?</em> He sends the thought while stepping away from the window, pocketing his newly purchased phone from the table.</p><p>Warmth diffuses through him as Baekhyun responds. <em>Yeah. What’s wrong?</em> A wave of calm reassurance sweeps over him.</p><p>Yixing pushes against the tightness in his chest. <em>Nothing,</em> he thinks, staring at his reflection in the mirror, noting how his cheekbones have begun to protrude enough that it makes him look nearly skeletal, and how his hair has begun to sweep into his eyes. He needs a haircut.</p><p><em>Okay,</em> Baekhyun responds, a touch unsure. Yixing frowns, but dismisses it.</p><p><em>Sleep well,</em> he thinks. <em>Stay safe.</em> <em>I miss you.</em></p><p><em>Stay safe, Xing</em>, is Baekhyun’s last message before he pulls away, leaving only residual warmth in the back of his throat.</p><p>Yixing sighs. “Good night,” he says, to no one but himself. The dead air swallows the sound.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>A week later, something goes wrong.</p><p>He’s aimlessly scrolling through his phone, watching from the corner of his eye as the steam from his tea swirls gently through the air before it dissipates, when the lights begin to flicker. He frowns. Something frantic and hot gathers at the base of his spine, exploding outwards, and Yixing stands up from his chair, his vision darkening at the corners, pressure building and building in his mind—</p><p>The lights stop flickering.</p><p><em>Baekhyun</em>, he reaches frantically for his other half, his Parallel. <em>Baekhyun! </em></p><p>It has to work, he thinks. Baekhyun has never ignored him before. Baekhyun will reply.</p><p>He gets no response.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He goes back to the airport, rushes through all the security checks and finds his seat on a plane to—</p><p>
  <em>“Lyon,” Baekhyun says, hugging him. Yixing can feel the softness of Baekhyun’s hair on his cheek. “Don’t tell anyone else,” and Yixing rolls his eyes at him.<br/>“I helped come up with the plan too, you know,” he pinches him lightly in the side. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Baekhyun flinches away, yelping, then comes back with a pout. His eyes sparkle in the dim light—Yixing sometimes wonders if that’s part of his powers as well. “You know I hate that, hyung.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yixing pinches him again, grinning.</em>
</p><p>He shifts in his seat, antsy. They all knew the general whereabouts of each other’s locations, but had elected the best option (for security purposes) would be to keep exact locations confidential between Parallels only. Yixing had reached out to search for Jongin or Lu Han anyways, just in case, only to come up empty handed.</p><p>Baekhyun is in Lyon. Yixing will fly there and find him, and make sure the sudden emptiness in the back of his mind is a freak accident, that the lights flickering doesn’t mean anything, that the reason Baekhyun hasn’t been responding is because he’s exhausted. Lu Han will be angry with him, later, for leaving and setting out to find Baekhyun alone, but what other choice does he have?</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Baekhyun is not in Lyon.</p><p>“—freak power outage,” he hears, from a couple gossiping outside a café. Yixing wanders closer, pretends to be lost, pulling out a map he had nicked from one of those tourist trap booths he’d passed earlier.</p><p>“It just suddenly went dark—the whole city. I’ve never seen anything like it.”</p><p>He grits his teeth. His nails leave crescent moon marks in his palms.</p><p>He pushes tentatively against his bond.</p><p>Nothing. Empty silence. A line tethered to nothing at its end.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He wanders, lost.</p><p>He hops trains, traveling from city to city, hitching rides in the backs of sleeper cars that travel for miles and miles down fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Every so often, he tests their bond, waits for it to sing, for that familiar warmth to diffuse into his chest when he knows his Parallel is safe.</p><p>It never does.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He shivers. It’s cold—he had left nearly everything in Yunnan, too desperate to get to Lyon as quickly as he could. He’s nearly out of money, too. He’s been able to use his ability to earn some small pocket change, healing the sick from city to city, but for the most part he’s been hungry for weeks. The hunger doesn’t bother him though. It’s nothing new—they've all been starved before. It doesn’t feel any emptier than the ache in his chest from his missing Parallel.</p><p>He reaches out again, hopeful.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>He closes his eyes bitterly for a moment before he continues walking. <em>Yixing</em>, he hears the faintest of whispers in the back of his mind. His eyes grow wide, and he shakes his head. His mind is playing tricks on him.</p><p>Lights flicker in the street, then again, and that building pressure that he had felt in Yunnan builds in his mind, threatening to overwhelm him. He staggers to an alley, pushing past the pedestrians crowding around him, and breathes heavily, leaning against the wall. <em>Baekhyun</em>, he pushes against the bond, worms his way through the strong, strong mental walls that have been erected against him. <em>Baekhyun, where are you?</em></p><p>He knows he sounds desperate. He doesn’t care.</p><p>Something tries to push him out, hard. He doesn’t have time to wonder why before he grits his teeth and pushes again. He refuses to give up. He refuses to lose him again.</p><p>He feels the walls give slightly—a flash of color, the softest whisper in his ear—before he loses his grip entirely on the bond and he has to open his eyes again, staring at the dirty brick wall he is half slumped against. Sweat beads on his hairline and his jaw aches, but still, Yixing smiles.</p><p>He knows where Baekhyun is.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The smell of the labs—sharply sterile—haunt his memories. He stumbles in the hallway as he remembers Jongdae’s hoarse screaming, Tao’s soft sobbing from rooms close and yet too far from his own. Lu Han, once mischievous, now quiet, pale, withdrawn. Yifan, their <em>duizhang</em>, with a hunch to his back, limbs tucked tight into his own body as if afraid to take up too much space. Minseok, strong Minseok, reduced to shivers while curled up in a corner, a low keening emitting from his throat. He catches himself. They’re safe.</p><p>His only duty is to get Baekhyun out. He has to get Baekhyun out.</p><p>A scientist rounds the corner. Yixing reaches out to touch, covering the scientist’s mouth with the palm of his hand, muffling him. Allows his power to drain the life from the man, watches as his skin becomes paper thin, the veins and arteries standing in stark relief, the blood within them going dry. Watches as wrinkles form on that delicate paper thin skin, as his hair loses color and falls out, drifting gently to rest on the floor. Watches as the man shrinks, folds into himself, becomes dust and ash, a husk. He makes no sound.</p><p>Yixing draws his hand away. Flexes his fingers.</p><p>Dimly, in the rush of his own blood in his ears, he can hear Baekhyun’s heartbeat, a soft accompaniment to his own. Baekhyun is afraid, apprehensive. The hairs on the back of his neck rise.</p><p>He steals around the corner, silent. He lets his instincts guide him to where Baekhyun is. Any scientists he passes become empty husks. He lets them trail his steps, mark his path. Little macabre souvenirs.</p><p>One by one, they fall.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>He swipes the security card he had nicked from one of the scientist’s pockets, waiting for the doors to hiss open. <em>I’m here, Baekhyun</em>, he had reassured through their bond. <em>You’ll be safe soon. I’m coming to get you.</em></p><p>He gets nothing back but a spike of fear.</p><p>The doors hiss open.</p><p>Baekhyun lies, strapped down to the table. Yixing rushes over, unbuckling the restraints before pulling him close, letting all his energy drain into Baekhyun, healing him. His hair brushes softly against Yixing’s cheek. “Yixing,” he sighs, and his voice is raspy but familiar. Fond. Yixing sinks into it, just for a moment.</p><p>“We need to go,” Baekhyun pushes him back before he can finish healing, and Yixing remembers where they are. “It’s just you?”</p><p>He nods. “I couldn’t find the others. I got most of the scientists outside, but patrols will definitely be around soon.” As if on cue, the alarms begin to blare, and gas starts hissing from unseen vents into the room. They both bring hands up to their faces, trying to breathe as little of the gas as they can.</p><p>He grips Baekhyun’s hand tightly, still transferring his energy to him, healing the scrapes and bruises that adorn his body, even as they run. They hear shouts behind him, and flinch as bullets begin spraying too close for comfort. “We’re nearly there,” he pants, tugging Baekhyun along. His legs tremble, weak. He’d made a mistake—he’d given him too much too fast earlier, thinking he had enough to spare from the energy he had taken from the scientists.</p><p>His vision goes fuzzy, specked with grey flecks like static, but he says nothing, still determined to get Baekhyun out to safety. At least one of them needs to make it out, to warn the others. He’s firm on it being Baekhyun.</p><p>“Yixing,” he hears Baekhyun shout. Somehow he’s now the one pulling him along. “Come on, hyung.”</p><p>He stumbles. Falls.</p><p>His knees must ache, from the way he crumples against the floor, but he can no longer feel anything, numb. “Go,” he unlaces their fingers, waves him on. “Please go.” <em>Warn the others</em>, he pushes through their bond, or tries. His head hurts.</p><p>Baekhyun moves back towards him, but his face is distorted now, features all blurring together, and Yixing watches through quickly shutting eyes as Baekhyun holds a hand up, aimed back from where they came.  </p><p>Darkness crashes over him, and it feels like bliss.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>When he opens his eyes again, it’s to Baekhyun sponging his forehead with tepid water, carefully rearranging the blankets around him. “Hi,” he smiles, warm, eyes crinkling familiarly, and Yixing is so relieved to see him that he can’t even wonder at how they are still alive or where they are. Yixing reaches out to touch, to make sure he is really there, to feel the pulse under his skin and marvel at his warmth.</p><p>Baekhyun lets him interlace their fingers loosely, then brings their hands up to his lips, letting the back of his hand press there, a half-kiss.</p><p><em>Missed you,</em> Yixing thinks through their bond, already drifting back into drowsiness as he finally, finally relaxes. <em>I love you</em>.</p><p>He misses the contemplative look on Baekhyun’s face as sleep claims him once more.</p><p>Baekhyun doesn’t reply.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><i>putonghua</i>: standard mandarin</p><p>1. plot twist lol<br/>2. where is baekhyun i wonder<br/>3. yes, it is that time of the year again <strike>my 3rd ao3 anniv</strike><br/>4. yes, i took the baekxing from my first anniv and basically remixed it with the mama!au i wrote last year (every atom of me) for my second anniv to birth this little demon<br/>5. i wrote this from 1-3am this morning um<br/>6. OH. my headcanon is that x-exo have the opposite powers of the exos so baëkhyun has the power of darkness (i hinted at it a bit so hopefully that was ? helpful). on that note, that doesn't mean this yixing is yïxing, i just like to imagine his power goes both ways regardless bc it's tastier that way<br/>7. first bx fic of the year! yay</p><p>p.s.<br/>follow me on <a href="https://twitter.com/staryxz">twitter</a> for writing updates and general screaming about xing<br/>drop me some qs on <a href="https://curiouscat.me/yixingzhang">cc</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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